Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyMac
NFHS 2021-22 Safety Concerns 3-7: The referee must not permit any team member to participate if in his/her judgment any item constitutes a safety concern, such as, but not limited to, a player’s fingernails or hairstyle.
2022-23 Editorial Changes
NFHS 2022-23 Safety Concerns 3-7: The referee must not permit any team member to participate if in his/her judgment any item constitutes a safety concern.
Why was the specific reference to fingernails removed?
I always liked that the fingernail example was in the rulebook.
Made it easy to explain to a coach, player, or parent.
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Billy, in your question, you omitted the other specific example of "hairstyle" from the "old" 3-7.
This is the same year 3-5-4d was appended and reversed the prohibition on beads, barrettes, and bobby pins. The 2022-23 preseason guide illustrated this and at the same time 3-7 was edited.
My hunch is that the examples were eliminated to reduce the implicit bias towards girls, who are more likely to have longer fingernails than boys, plus now that boys are wearing longer hairstyles with the now-legal adornments. Naturally, only the rules committee, editor, and publisher know for certain (as 3-7 was only an editorial change and not a rules change).
Now, the only gender-specific items left in the book should be the two sizes of basketballs, but I'm not up for researching it more at present to validate it.